“Are you one of MANY MANY people that still believes Al Gore invented the internet?”
Just an OT reply on a OT thread – Al Gore never claimed to have invented the internet. He did, however, claim to have taken the initiative to create the internet – a claim that is backed by Vint Cerf (who is one of the prime personages who actually could be said to have “invented” – at least in large part – the internet). In context, it is absolutely clear that Gore’s comments about the internet had to do with his role as one of the primary congressmembers who saw the potential and actively lobbied for funding for the nascent internet in the 80’s. The idea that he thought – or intended for anyone else to think – that he had somehow engineered the entire thing himself is ludicrous on it’s face, and a prime example of “soundbite” politics at it’s most dishonest.
Al Gore steered a LOT of funding towards the interconnection of the various disparate networks that were rising in the 80s (cerfNet, ARPAnet, etc) into a unified whole. He was probably the most technologically savvy senator during the 80s, and clearly had a very good idea of what was being done with those funds. Without Al Gore, it is likely that the unification of the various networks would have taken considerably longer.
